Folks tend to think of the market for 1.8-inch hard drives as being limited to things like iPods and other portable media players, but storage developer Toshiba has its sights set on not only the digital consumer electronics market, but also on ultra-portable computers and other mobile Internet devices. To that end, the company has rolled out a series of four new 1.8-inch drives (PDF), two 60 GB drives aimed at CE devices, as well as a single-platter 80 GB drive and a double-platter 120 GB drive aimed at portable PCs and handheld devices. The new drives represent Toshiba’s eighth generation of 1.8-inch hard disk drives, and Toshiba has shipped over 60 million devices in the segment, making it the leading 1.8-inch drive manufacturer.
“We are the only HDD manufacturer with a proven track record of success in the 1.8-inch HDD category, and we see healthy opportunity for continued growth and adoption of this form factor,” said Toshiba Storage Devices’ VP of marketing Maciek Brzeski, in a statement. “With increasing capacities and better features for mobility, 1.8-inch HDDs are driving new markets and finding their way into traditional storage-hungry applications such as mobile PCs.”
The 120 GB MK1214GAH sports an average seek time of 12 ms, a 4,200 rpm speed, a 2 MB buffer, an a PATA interface. The single-platter, 80 GB MK8025GAL offers an 8 MB buffer and weighs two grams less than traditional 1.8-inch drives. Both drives are aimed at the mobile computing market, and feature quiet operation, low power requirements, and rugged designs.
For CE devices, the 60 GB MK6014 GAL and MK6015GAA offer a 5mm-high form factor, with the 6014GAL offering a 4,200 rpm spin rate and a 2 MB buffer, while the 6015GAA spins at a quieter 3,600 rpm and sports a 160 KB buffer.
Manufacturers should be seeing these drives in December, which means they’ll be turning up in mobile devices and media players in early 2008.
